A couple of weeks ago, I flew JFK-CDG. Overheard a pax sitting behind me talking with his seatmate. He checks in at JFK. Fine. Goes through security, is randomly selected for a full-on hand-carry baggage check and wanding. Fine. On boarding the aircraft, he is selected at random again to undergo another thorough check. Boards the aircraft. As he's telling this story, the F/A comes to him and says that he's requested to retrieve his hand-carry and to undergo another security check at the boarding gate.

At first, I thought this was funny. Then I realized maybe it wasn't random, maybe some software program triggered all these additional security precautions.